Wanderlust Worker

How To Get Really Rich In Life

“Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.” — Sholem Aleichem

There are 7.5 billion people on this planet. 15 million millionaires. 1,810 billionaires. The rest? Mostly up to their eyeballs in debt, wondering how they’ll ever extricate themselves from the shackles of an unrelenting and abhorrent situation. Most people aren’t thinking about how they can get rich in life; they’re simply wondering how they can crawl out from beneath the mountain of debt that’s effectively buried them.

The problem? While most people do want to get rich, they have no idea how to go about getting there. They’ve no sense of just what it takes nor the monumental sacrifices that are required of a human to achieve what most feel to be the unattainable. They sum up wealth to only be intended for those lucky enough, genetically-predisposed enough or deceitful enough to somehow amass obscene amounts of money.

Yet, history is littered with rags-to-riches stories. It’s filled with the tales of people who’ve gone from being broke and in a state of sheer poverty, to accumulating riches beyond their wildest dreams. Did they fail along the way? Sure. But it’s because they failed but somehow stayed persistent that they achieved such monumental success. In fact, even the most famous people in the world failed the most times before attaining notable success.

Yet, while many might have heard the stories and know that they exist, they’ve also been disheartened in the past by whatever endeavors they toiled towards, yet failed. Recovering from failure isn’t easy by any means and different people take failure in different ways. For some, it emboldens them, allowing them to learn life’s invaluable lessons. For others, it simply depresses them, instilling a great sense of fear, worry and anxiety in their hopes for the future.

According to statistics, if you’re an American, your average household debt is roughly $130,922 with $15,762 of that debt being credit card debt. Now, some debt is definitely good. Don’t get me wrong. But other debt, namely, revolving and credit card debt, is bad. Having too much credit card debt is not only bad in terms of the hefty amounts of interest that you’ll owe and pay over time, but if those cards are maxed out, it will also negatively affect your credit rating.

When your credit rating drops, so do your chances to get favorable loans towards good debt such as buying or investing in real estate, and starting or expanding a business. The point? If you want to get rich, first you need to handle your debt. Once your debt’s been handled, you can begin focusing on accumulating wealth and getting rich over time. Don’t look for a magic bullet or special pill or any other shortcut to get you there overnight. It doesn’t exist.

What Does It Take To Get Really Rich?

You’ve undoubtedly seen the late-night infomercial for some product or service that all-but-guarantees you’ll get rich. You would simply pitch it to your friends and become a millionaire almost instantly, right? It’s so simple that even an 85-year-old grandma can do it! Well, we all know just how far removed from the truth that is. Whatever the product is, it’s likely designed to extract money from you rather than to help you make it.

But, that’s not the only problem. Did you know that according to statistics, 80% of people who buy a get-rich-quick program or subscribe to some money-making system never actually open it or use it? They never actually give it a chance. Whether it’s out of sheer laziness, overwhelm from present-day stressors or for some other reason, they don’t take advantage of what they have. So why is that?

If you’ve had any experience with this, you’re not alone. While so many people truly do want to get rich, the process of getting there and the sheer volume of work ahead of them becomes transparent over time. And, when we tend to realize just how big of a mountain we have to climb, that pestilent fear of failure kicks in. That voice inside of our heads often tells us that if we put our necks on the line, it could result in immense pain.

The truth? There’s going to be a lot of pain while trying to get rich. That much is natural. It isn’t going to be easy whatsoever. There’s also going to be a lot of failure in store for you. You have to expect that. But, success is certainly attainable as long as you want it bad enough. As long as the reasons for wanting it delve deeper than the superficial and they really mean something to you deep down inside, you’ll eventually attain it.

But clearly you already know it’s going to be difficult. You already know that it’s going to take an immense amount of struggle to get rich. But before you even start pushing in that direction, you have to define what getting really rich in life actually means to you. Not only do you have decide why you want it badly enough that you’re willing to do whatever it takes, but you also have to come up with a number in your mind, an exact figure that you’re shooting for.

If you don’t define what getting really rich means to you, the concept stays in the abstract. You’ve likely heard this before, either from me or elsewhere, that in order to achieve any goal, you have to get highly specific about it. This is also part of the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal setting method. The “S” stands for specific. You need to come up with an exact figure. Is it 10 million dollars? 100 million dollars? 1 billion dollars or more?

When you define your goal with enough specifics, it becomes more real. But you can’t just define it in your mind. You have to actually write it down. Keep in mind that getting rich is no different than any other goal in life. And in order to achieve any goal, you have to specific about it and ensure that it’s written down. Once you’ve done that, you’ve subconsciously committed to that goal. You won’t realize it right away, but eventually, you’ll adjust all your behavior to help lead you towards its achievement.

The Principles of Success

Before discussing a step-by-step process for getting rich and amassing wealth, let’s take a brief look at the principles of success. What principles do truly successful people embody? How do they go about their lives? What types of things do they do and say? How do they behave that sets them apart from the rest of people?

No matter what you believe about rich people, there are a set of principles that govern their lives that have elevated them to the position they’re in. In fact, there are six core principles that help to govern their lives. Before embarking on a road map to potential riches, you’ll first need to audit your life to ensure you’re embodying these six principles.

If you’re not embodying these six core principles, you’ll find that achieving wealth by any measure will be monumentally difficult. Next to impossible even. That’s not to say that you can’t taste success during those fleeting moments or temporary victories. But they’ll just be short-lived. They won’t last and you won’t be able to amass great amounts of wealth if you fail to adhere to these foundational elements that should govern the way you live your life.

The biggest problem? Most people aren’t thinking about the long-term implications of their actions; they’re thinking about instant gratification and how they can get what they want right now, without having to work so hard for it. Most people are also looking to do the least amount of work for the greatest return. That won’t get you rich by any measure. Not even in the least bit. Instead, you have to focus on doing the most amount of work for the least initial return.

I know that it sounds crazy. It does. Truly. But nothing can be further from the truth. You can’t think in terms of days, weeks or even months. You have to think in terms of years and decades. There’s a long road to success. You won’t get there through some shortcut or hack, so to speak. You’re going to have to work for it and take the stairs because there is no elevator to success, no matter what anyone tells you.

So what are these 6 principles? Well, if you haven’t read the post, here’s a brief summary:

Gratitude: We have a lot to be grateful for in life, yet we spend most of our lives hinging our happiness on the attainment of things. It’s steeped in the status quo that we’ve become accustomed to. But true success and wealth can only be attained when we happily succeed rather than succeeding to be happy. Spend your time counting your blessings rather than longing for shiny objects.

Integrity: Success by any measure isn’t largely possible without wielding the principle of integrity. If people can’t trust you, and instead deem you deceitful or solely self-interested, you won’t gain the respect and business of others. In fact, it can just about ruin you and deplete you of all opportunity when your reputation suffers.

Value: There’s absolutely no way to get rich in life without adding an enormous amount of value to the world. The question shouldn’t be about quick profits or making a killing in the short term, it should be about how you can add an enormous amount of value to reap the benefits down the road, not today. The richest people in the world are those that have added the most value, plain and simple. Period.

Persistence: Clearly, we all go through ups and downs in life while chasing any goal. In fact, any goal that’s a great departure from the current state of your life right now is going to require some serious mental, spiritual, emotional and physical toughness. To get there, you need to stay persistent. Even if you only do a little bit each day, you have to keep moving forward. Never stop.

Loyalty: Never forget the people who are close to you, and never dishonor them by turning away from them. Always look for ways to help those that are close to you, especially those that have been there for you during your times of need. Being disloyal will get you nowhere fast, and it especially won’t help you to get rich by any standard.

Contribution: The mind gets what it focuses on. When we’re living in a state of lack and worried about every last red cent, we fail to see what others are going through in life. Yet, when we contribute, whether it’s our time or money that we’re giving away, we move into a state of abundance. If you want to get rich, you have to depart from the scarcity mentality and far remove yourself from a state of lack.

The Roadmap to Riches

Okay, so let’s just say that you truly are committed to getting rich and you’ve created specific goals that are measurable and trackable over time. What else is required? Well, like any other goal, there are a few other elements that need to be addressed. If you can address these elements and stay consistent by taking action every single day and measuring your results, the only thing separating you from that goal is time.

While I don’t profess to have all the answers, I can certainly offer up some guidance and help along the way. As long as you’re doing things for the right reasons, in that your motivations for wanting to get rich are good and pure, then you’ll achieve success over time as long as you don’t give up. If your motivations are merely superficial in that you just want a fancy car to drive or a mega-mansion to live in without actually wanting to contribute major value to the world, you’ll likely fail.

I know that this might sound trivial — add lots of value and you’ll succeed — but no truer words have been spoken. Oftentimes, we overlook the most simple and basic fundamentals in life that allow us to succeed. What we don’t realize is that a small leak will sink a great ship, as Benjamin Franklin once said when he once warned us against “little expenses.” The point? Small actions add up over time. Wouldn’t you rather those actions be positive rather than negative?

While it might seem hard to stay the course, time is going to pass either way. And, one year from now, you’ll look back and wish you started today, so why wish? Why not start now? If you want to get rich, you have to be brutally honest with yourself. You have to stamp out negative financial behavior that can ruin you over time. If your expenses are exceeding your income, for example, how could you expect to get rich over time? You’ll just find yourself deeper and deeper in debt.

Okay, okay. So, enough of the chatter. Clearly, you’re looking for the roadmap for getting rich. Here it is. There are 17 different parts. It’s essential that you stick to all 17 of them. You simply can’t ignore one and expect to get rich. It doesn’t work that way. And if you’re wondering how long this is going to take then you’re asking yourself the wrong question. Just commit to wielding these 17 parts for as long as it takes. That’s how you’ll get rich. Will it be easy? Heck no. But it will most certainly be worth it.

#1 — Set specific time-bound goals that are measurable

No matter what the term “being rich” means to you, it needs to be defined, specifically and measurably. Come up with a number — an amount that dictates that you’re living life according to your own terms. Whether it’s in the millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions or even more, you have to get specific about that number if you want to achieve your goal.

Not only do you need to be specific about your goal to get rich, you also need to be able to ensure that it’s time-bound and written down. Come up with an exact date. But be realistic. I’m all for shooting for the stars, but you want to ensure that you encourage yourself to build momentum rather than get disheartened or disappointed. When you select an actual date on the calendar, it also becomes far more real.

I’m not talking about saying that you’ll be rich a few years from now; I’m talking about picking a date — a real date with a month and day and year. Yes, that kind of date. Feel scary? Well, it should be. You know how the saying goes? If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.

#2 — Develop deep-rooted reasons for wanting to succeed

Reasons come first. Answers come second. If you’ve ever wanted something badly enough, you know how true this statement is. When you want something so badly that it hurts and it stems down to the core of who you are, nothing can stand in your way. No amount of reasoning or logic at the hand of others can possibly discourage you. Nope. You’re committed. You’ve already decided on it.

Whatever you put your mind to, as long as you want it badly enough, and the reasons why you want it supersede the mere superficial, you’ll do what it takes to see things through. But you can’t just say you want to be rich so that you can buy whatever you want and do whatever you want when you want. There has to be something deeper pulling you rather than pushing you. The push won’t work. But when the reasons compel us enough to pull us, that’s when the real magic starts to happen.

Write down the deep-rooted reasons for why you must succeed. Not why you should. Why you absolutely must. What do deep-rooted reasons look like? Family. Security. Country. Love. Contribution. And so on. These reasons should be what pulls you towards your dream of getting rich, not what pushes you. Superficial reasons can push you, but they only work for so long. At some point, you get discouraged and revert back to your old ways.

#3 — Create a massive action plan

Getting rich or amassing any kind of notable wealth is a serious undertaking. It’s no joke. It requires every fiber of your being, supreme focus and an unrelenting drive towards your intended target. It’s easy to get discouraged along the way. That’s why a massive action plan is so important. It acts as your compass and barometer towards your dream. It helps offer a guiding light as you make your way through the darkness of the unknown.

But a massive action plan isn’t something to be afraid of. It isn’t something complicated or convoluted. It’s simple and straightforward. All it requires is some thought and a lot of writing. Once you know your intended target, as in you’ve defined that big number that signifies you’re rich, you need to illuminate a path of getting there. What steps will you take? What will you do? How will you get from this point to the next?

Think about an airplane for a moment. While you might think it’s some simple feat to fly from one city to the next, leave at a specific time and arrive at another time, and actually arrive on time, it’s a tremendous undertaking. There are millions of moving parts. Not just while the plane is in the air, but before it even takes off. Countless tasks have to be completed and checked off the list. While in the air, another array of unending tasks need to be tended to.

Clearly, the plane has a lot to deal with before takeoff, while in flight, and after landing. This is all part of the plane’s massive action plan. What you need to do is write down every single thing you need to do or can possibly do to move yourself from your current point to the point you intend to target. If you want to get really rich, there’s no other way to go about it. You need a seriously detailed plan to get you there.

#4 — Eliminate or drastically reduce your debt

Anyone that’s serious about hoarding a vault full of cash has to first eliminate or drastically reduce their debt. Why? Because, when you have debt payments that are up to your eyeballs and your expenses are matching up or exceeding your income, it becomes virtually impossible to get ahead. Clearly, most people have experience with this, including myself. There was a time when I was flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak.

The problem? Much of our debt is accumulated or created based on our habits. We have bad habits that help to continually expand our debt rather than our assets. Call it the American way, if you will. Everywhere we turn, there’s another opportunity to spend money. Low prices here. Flash sales there. The newest shiny object that you absolutely must have. But at what cost? If we stopped to realize the real financial impact that some of our purchases make, would we change our ways?

Regardless, drastic times call for drastic measures. You need to get a lay of the land and figure out where you stand right now. In a book that I wrote called The Millionaire Method, I go through all of these steps and even discuss the psychology of our debt. But to summarize, here’s how to figure out where you stand, financially speaking that is:

Split a sheet of paper down into two halves by drawing a line down the center of the longest side

On the left column, write the heading Assets and Income

On the right column, write the heading Debts and Expenses

Write down your monthly income on the left hand side. How much do you make per month? Is it fixed or is it variable? If it’s variable, write down the average based on the past 6 months of income.

Write down any assets you might have such as savings, stocks, bonds, 401k and total up both your assets and your monthly income.

On the right side, figure out all your debt and expenses. Start with your fixed debt such as your car loans, student loans and mortgages. Next, figure out your revolving (variable) credit card debt. What do those interest payments look like? Write it all down.

And, what are your other expenses, such as food, entertainment, transportation and gas, and so on? Put it all down on paper in front of you. If you need to, collect the last 6 months of your bank statements and comb through them like a forensic detective.

Determine your net worth and your monthly expenses. How much are you worth right now? How much are you spending every month on things? If you can’t figure this out, then you don’t have a starting point where you can measure and track your results from.

Slash some of your costs immediately. Maybe it’s that gym membership that you’re not using or that Cable TV package you just don’t have time for. Maybe it’s something else like alcohol or cigarettes. Figure out ways to cut costs because there’s simply no way you’ll ever get rich if you continue to be burdened by debt.

#5 — Save and invest at least 20% of your income

Once you’re no longer living paycheck-to-paycheck, you can focus on saving and investing your money. A good rule of thumb is to stock away at least 20% of your income. If you’re living beyond your means, this will be more difficult. But, you can always find ways to save and invest. Like any other habit, this develops over time. Don’t expect to become a financial guru overnight. It just won’t happen. Focus on the long term.

Once you develop the habit of saving and investing your money, it simply balloons. All you have to do is build some momentum. Make a decision and get out there and do something. Sit down at your bank and open up an investment account or a 401k if you don’t already have one. Next, put your savings on auto-pilot. Ensure that 20% of your income gets immediately deducted from your account as soon as the money hits you. This way, you never actually miss it.

Of course, this takes some discipline. If you don’t have the discipline to not spend the money in your savings, then there are greater problems here. But, as long as you have those deep-rooted reasons for wanting to get rich, it will happen over time. Just think about a slow-and-steady race to to the top rather than a sprint. This is definitely likened more to a marathon than anything else.

You’ve also likely heard that you need to have 6 months of expenses tucked away for a rainy day. Or, it can also be used to support you when you start your business, should the entrepreneurial bug bite you. Of course, you should have more than 6 months of expenses tucked away; you should have more than a rainy-day fund setup. You should have savings that you can use as moment-of-opportunity cash, as Mark Cuban calls it, or money that can be used when the right opportunity presents itself.

#6 — Own the roof over your head, no matter how small it might be

When you rent, you’re only helping your landlord to line his or her pockets or pay off their mortgage. Renting should never be an option, no matter what the situation. Even if you have to buy the smallest and most uncomfortable home, you have to make those sacrifices because, over time, it will increase in value. Real estate is a major source of wealth for millionaires from around the world. They didn’t all start at the top. They worked their way there.

If you’re renting the roof over your head, you need to immediately schedule a meeting with a mortgage broker. Sit down, face to face, and explain your situation. Find out what kind of mortgage you can qualify for, and how much money you’ll need to put as a down payment. Get pre-approved for something, anything. It doesn’t matter how small it is, nor what your friends or family will think. You absolutely have to do this.

Once you’ve sat down and you have an idea of what it takes, you can incorporate that into your massive action plan. Keep in mind that this is going to be just one step in the massive staircase towards whatever your rich goals might be. But once you have a sense of what it will take to own your home, you can begin making preparations towards that end. And you’ll find that your subconscious will take over here and help to make your dream into a reality.

Speaking of monthly income and expenses, one rule you absolutely must adhere to if you want to ever consider getting rich, is to make sure that your monthly income is exceeding your expenses. The worst possible situation that you can ever find yourself in is up to your eyeballs in debt with nowhere left to turn. When you’ve maxed out your entire life, and you lose your job for instance, that’s when the ultimate pain and fear begins to kick in.

If you want to avoid that from happening, make sure that you’re not spending yourself into the ground. It’s incredibly difficult to dig yourself out of mountains of debt, as you’ve likely already come to find. When you’re just struggling to pay down debt and handle your expenses, it’s hard to think about getting rich; all you’re trying to do at that point is survive. But if you’ve already gotten a lay of the land and did the debt exercise, then you should know where your money is going every month.

It’s really easy to live outside of your means; many people do it still. No matter how much reasoning and logic is behind spending less than you make, so many people just don’t do it. Find ways to cut things out of your budget no matter what it takes. Default back to your strong-enough reasons and do whatever it takes to put yourself into a stronger position, financially speaking.

#8 — Measure and track your results daily

Now that you have your number and have defined what it’s going to take to indicate that you’ve become uber-wealthy, you need to measure and track your results. Write down every last red cent you spend every single day. Buy a journal and keep track of everything. Spent $5 on a cup of coffee? Write it down. Spent $2 on a pack of gum? Write it down. I’m talking about every last red cent.

The more you’re able to measure and track your results on an acute scale, the more likely you’ll be to move towards that goal. Why not track your net worth on a daily basis? Or, why not track every single little thing you spend your money on? The reason is usually fear. The subconscious works against us often so that we don’t reveal the truth to ourselves, because the truth would be the ultimate pain.

Sometimes, we just have to suck it up. We just have to take a deep breath and experience a little bit of short-term pain so that we can enjoy an abundance of long-term gain. Create a system for measuring and tracking your results so that you can see just how far you’ve come, where you are, and how much further you have left to go. When you measure and track your results, you can make adjustments to your massive action plan if you see that things aren’t going in the right direction.

#9 — Quit your bad habits

I know. I know. We are creatures of habit. They define the things we say, think and do on a daily basis. They comprise 45% of our human behavior according to one study, but likely far more than that. The problem, however, is that a large part of our behavior is negative behavior that acts more to deter us from getting rich rather than supporting us. Our bad habits, depending on how bad they are, can eat away at our income and savings, while also causing us to go heavily into debt.

But, if you’re serious about getting rich, you need to quit the bad habits that are holding you back. As painful as it might feel to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop gambling, stop overeating, stop overspending, or anything else, it’s a necessary pre-requisite for clawing yourself out of whatever hole you’ve dug yourself into. And while it might seem overwhelming right now, with a little bit of action towards quitting your bad habits on a daily basis, progress can be made.

Since all habits are formed over time, they also need to be broken over time. Yes, you can do it cold turkey as long as you have a strong enough reason to do it. If the doctor tells you that you’re going to die of lung cancer if you don’t stop smoking, or you suffer a major heart attack because of your poor diet, it’s easier to jolt some sense into yourself. But aside from those situations, you really need to do this over time.

There’s something called the micro-changes approach. Think about your habit like a rubber band, if you pull too hard, it can snap and break. That’s why you can’t form and break habits overnight. They take time. The elastic needs to be pulled and stretched slowly. If you’re smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, slowly cut down over time. For example, if there are 20 cigarettes in a pack, the first week, cut out 3 cigarettes so you’re only smoking 17 per day. The next week, 3 less. And on and on.

The micro-changes approach works really well no matter what bad habit you want to quit or good habit you want to build up because it slowly modifies the neural pathways in the mind. If you’ve been smoking for 20 years, don’t expect to quit overnight. But, if you take 6 to 8 weeks of cigarette-smoking reduction until you’re smoke-free, and you can replace that behavior with something else, then you can quit. Your future rich-self will thank you for it.

#10 — Eliminate procrastination

Procrastination has been dubbed the silent killer. It’s our way of putting off for tomorrow what can be done today. But if you want to get ahead in life, get rich, or achieve just about any other goal, you need to eliminate procrastination from your life. There’s absolutely no room for it if you’re looking to succeed, because it’s the one of the biggest things that will hold you back from accomplishing your dreams.

I know. I know. It’s hard to eliminate procrastination. Again, you have to default back to your strong-enough reasons for doing this. So, what’s the best way to cut this silent killer out from your life? The 15-minute rule. What does it entail? All you need to do is setup a timer for 15 minutes on your smartphone or any other device. Then, find the one thing you’ve been putting off for the longest, and do it for just 15 minutes.

Why only 15 minutes? This is called the too-small-too-fail approach to doing things. When you decide to do something for only 15 minutes, it doesn’t feel so overwhelming. You can do 15 minutes. It’s no big deal. But, the best part about this is that it gives you momentum and breaks the procrastination-streak. And, what you might also come to find is that after the 15 minutes are up, you might keep going.

#11 — Learn to effectively manage your time

Time is the greatest equalizer in life. We all have the same amount of time. The rich have the same 24 hours in a day that the poor have. The difference? How they use the time they do have. Do they squander it and throw it away chasing after mindless pursuits and engaging in time-wasters? Or, do they use the time that they have wisely, putting it towards the achievement of their long-term goals?

There’s absolutely zero chance of getting rich in life if you don’t manage your time effectively. If you do know how to manage your time effectively, then you’ll be a step closer to achieving your dreams. This isn’t too difficult. It just requires some special attention to what you’re doing throughout the day and developing a system for tracking and managing the time that you’re spending on projects and activities.

The best way to do this? Use the quadrant time management system. That system breaks your time up into 4 categories, or quadrants, based on two factors: urgency and importance. Things are either only urgent, only important, both urgent and important, or none of the above. Time-wasters are none of the above. Something that’s important but not urgent, for example, are any activities related to your long-term goals.

For example, for me, the important but not urgent category would be writing in this blog, writing a book, creating a course, or doing anything else that will result in long-term passive income down the road. What are they for you? If you want to read more about how to effectively manage your time, I covered it in its entirety in this post.

#12 — Add enormous value to the world

Okay. There’s zero way that you’re going to get rich without adding enormous value to the world. This comes back to the concept of doing the most amount of work for the least return, initially at least. This isn’t about cutting corners or taking shortcuts. This is about doing as much work as possible, with as much detail, while adding an immense amount of value. The people that have added the most amount of value in the world, are simply the richest.

The problem? Adding lots of value, in the beginning at least, won’t result in much income. In fact, it will be frustrating. Think about Facebook. In the beginning, the site made no money and had no plan for income. The focus was on connecting the world through one simple-to-use platform. As the sheer volume of users grew, so did the company’s potential for generating revenue. But there was no plan for income in the beginning. It only evolved over time.

What Mark Zuckerberg did was to focus on how to add the most amount of value, with little regards to the bottom line in the beginning. Today, things are different. But if you look at the beginnings of any successful company, product, athlete or anything else for that matter, it all started with a burning desire to add a huge amount of value. Whether you start your own business or provide some other type of service, look to adding value first and foremost. The money will come after, not before.

#13 — Build multiple streams of passive income

If you’re truly serious about getting rich, you won’t be able to get there if your time is the only way you’re producing money. The problem is that, when you do provide a service or work for someone on a project, you can only make as much money as you have time. This limits and shackles you from achieving your financial dreams because there simply isn’t enough time in the day to get ahead like this.

If you want to get rich, or to set yourself up into a position where your income becomes more automatic, you need to create passive income streams. I spoke about this in length in a book I wrote entitled, The Income Bible. When your income is automatic, you can build a business knowing that your time isn’t your money. You can put your efforts into the endeavors that will make you money down the road and not today. But to get there, you have to handle your expenses and not simply ignore them.

Passive income gives you the freedom to do all that. Please, don’t get me wrong, this is not easy by any means. Creating significant passive-income streams is a monumental undertaking. Things like books, courses, dividend stocks and real estate are just some examples of passive-income streams, but there are more. Once you create one stream, you’ll become addicted. Then, when you have enough streams of automatic income, you can focus on building a big business that will help you get rich years from now. Yes, this is a lengthy process but well worth it.

#14 — Find a way to contribute to others

Life isn’t about what you can take; it’s about what you can give. Yes, you need to add value if you want to get rich, but you also need to find a way to contribute to others. Even if you don’t have money to donate, donate your time. Your time is more valuable than money because money can be spent and earned, but time can only be spent once. Once the time is spent, it’s not coming back to you.

Also, when you contribute to others, you shift your focus. You move away from a state of lack and towards a state of abundance. This is huge for the subconscious mind. It truly shifts your way of thinking and looking at things. You also begin to realize what you have rather than what you don’t when contribution becomes an important mainstay in your life.

Don’t allow the opportunities to come to you for contributing to others; seek them out. Contact local shelters, or just take a drive around homeless areas. Stop and speak to people. Give out bottles of water and listen to their stories. You’ll be surprised at just what you learn and discover by doing this. There’s more to life than just getting rich. We are all interconnected and have to play our part by contributing something to others without the thought of selfish gains.

#15 — Have faith and belief in your self and the future

Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase. Yes, Martin Luther King Jr. once said that. But how true are those words? We don’t always know if we’re going to fall or fail. It happens to us often. But, we can’t ever stop believing in our selves and in our capabilities to achieve our dreams, no matter what those might be.

It’s hard working towards a major goal, because it usually requires a complete departure from what you’re doing at the present moment. Losing weight, getting rich, quitting smoking, and doing just about anything else, is a monumental undertaking when it goes against every fiber of your being. Habits are very powerful and difficult to overcome. But sometimes, we just merely need to have faith that things will work out in the end.

This is especially true when we’re struggling through difficult times to achieve our goals. When the whole world seems stacked up against us, we need to default to our faith. We need to rely on the resilience of the human spirit to achieve greatness, but not forget that a higher power is connecting us all. There’s a universal energy that binds us together, connecting us with one another. Tap into that spiritual strength and incredible things will occur.

#16 — Focus on positivity

The human mind experiences anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 thoughts in a given day. Yes, that much. However, a large portion of that happens in our subconscious mind without our conscious understanding or knowledge. While many of those thoughts are repeated, when we allow the mind to focus on negativity, it festers and evolves, creating a perfect storm of tumult, fear and anxiety that perpetuates itself, ultimately, into reality.

When we think negatively, we act negatively and we look at everything through a negative perspective. It’s downright impossible to get rich if you’re living like this. Instead, you have to focus on positivity. All of your conscious thoughts should be geared towards the positive so that you can manifest that into your life.

At the basic foundation of its being, thoughts are purely energy. If you create positive energy, your life will be filled with positivity. This isn’t about doing mantras. This is about both being grateful for what you have, even if all you have are problems, and for relying on your capabilities and abilities to pull through the tough times. It’s about attracting the right things into your life through the sheer power of the mind. Once you learn to tap into that, extraordinary things will begin to unfold.

#17 — Never give up no matter how long it takes

Never, ever, ever give up. No matter how long it takes to achieve your goals. If you want to be rich, or do anything else, over time, you’ll achieve it if you don’t stop pushing towards your dreams. Once you stop pushing, you’re as good as dead in the proverbial water. Don’t allow that to happen. Small bits of progress each day is far better than no progress at all.

Life isn’t easy by any means. We all have a lot going on. At every turn, there’s something that creates a sense of stress or anxiety. But when we live in a state of fear, we give birth to more of just that in our lives. Simply realize that all good things come to those who wait. Quite literally, sometimes it takes years or decades to see things through. But as long as you don’t stop, and you keep chipping away, brick by brick, you’ll get there.

Find a source of inspiration and motivation in your life to see things through. Search for videos on YouTube or watch TED Talks. Maybe listen to empowering music. Whatever it takes. Never give in. Never stop. Always keep moving, even if it’s at a snail’s pace. Eventually you’ll get there. Eventually.